YouSaid · the spoken record

Alfredo Felix Cristiani-Burkard

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS ALFREDO FELIX CRISTIANI-BURKARD

lines on the record: 99
first: 1989-09-24
most recent: 1993-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We therefore call on the world to give us its attention and support, and, most of all, we ask God to shed his light on El Salvador, on the United Nations and on all men and women of good faith on this Earth of ours, which is a common inheritance that must be shared by all mankind.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Javier Perez de Cuellar, and the present Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and also their body of collaborators and advisers, without whose participation and support it is unlikely that we would have achieved the goal of putting El Salvador on the road towards genuine peace. The Security Council has always been very mindful of the peace process in our country, and the Council’s active even- handedness also deserves our highest praise. Forty-eighth session - 27 September l993 5 On behalf of El Salvador, I give thanks to everyone. El Salvador is a living example. We hope that we will continue to be an example of stability, respect for human rights, national concord and progress.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“And there is good news too, such as the extraordinarily important agreement on mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has thrilled the world. We have also seen an opening up in South Africa for reason to prevail, and the situation in Haiti becoming clear, albeit with difficulty. All that gives us comfort, and reminds us that we are in a period of enormous surprises. The world is ridding itself of many oppressive spectres, and this gives us the strength to believe in the great potential of the international system. If we had to prepare a list of all those to whom we would give thanks for their contribution to peace in El Salvador, we would always leave out a few, but we cannot fail to mention the extraordinary work carried out both by the previous Secretary-General, Mr.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“All the political and social forces in El Salvador have worked together to bring about the emergence of the new country. The friendly countries that are closest to us by reason of history and geography can testify to this. We have made a successful effort to bring order to our economy, and we are laying the foundations for the continued constructive advance of full democracy - political, economic, social and cultural. El Salvador expresses its concern over the continued existence of conflicts that are devastating some parts of the world. The tragic cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of Somalia cause us great distress. However, we have confidence in the force of reason, which always finds a way to achieve even the most difficult goals.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It has been an immense honour for us to come here every year to report on the progress in a process that is of such great concern to the people of El Salvador, and yet is also of such concern to Central America and the international community because of its positive effects on regional stability. The country that we are talking about today is very different from the one that we were discussing in 1989, and the important thing is that what is surprising in the difference is how positive and how full of hope it is. The credit is not ours. We did our work and exercised our will. The credit goes to a people that, from being a footnote to history, has won, by dint of sacrifice, a place of honour in this changing scene that we are seeing emerge at this close of the century.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Also, there are many new institutions emerging in our country, such as the civilian national police, which is one of the most ambitious experiments in public security in the world. We need timely technical and economic support to build the structures of peace more swiftly. We would like to be able to wipe from our minds the discouraging evidence that it is easier to find the money for war than for peace. The culture of peace - which is a world-wide challenge - must also become evident in this fundamental change in priorities. We are here for the last time because our presidential mandate comes to an end on 1 June 1994.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Our contribution cannot be material, because we lack resources and wealth, but we have earned the capacity to speak with the moral force of a people raising itself up from its own rubble with the unexpected serenity that results from prolonged suffering. If we in El Salvador can testify to anything, we can testify that it is possible to move from irrationality to the deliberate construction of historical rationality. In proceeding along this long path we need the international community’s political, moral and financial support, in keeping with the resolution that the General Assembly adopted last year for the reconstruction and development of El Salvador. We must reincorporate ex-combatants in institutional and productive life through programmes such as the transfer of land for farming.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We understand that this principle cannot in any way provide a means of interfering in the internal affairs of States; at the same time we believe that there are realities of today’s world that cannot be disregarded. We have therefore supported consideration of exceptional situations, in keeping with the experience with parallel representation of divided countries at the United Nations. It should be possible to resolve this matter within the framework of understanding and openness that now characterizes international relations. El Salvador, for the first time in its history, is in the vigorous mainstream of modernization, a dynamic that concerns all countries during these times of change.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The composition of the Council and the veto mechanism within it, which were a result of the deep mutual distrust of the post-war period, must be fundamentally revised to adopt them to times of cooperation and exchange. The Secretary-General’s field of activity should also be reconsidered, because there is far more executive work to be done today than in the past. All these are unavoidable challenges that now face the Organization, to which we owe so much and which we wish to see ever stronger and more efficient. The United Nations has room for the whole world. In successive addresses here, we have emphasized the importance of the principle of universality.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We Salvadorians have learned much from our close relation with the world Organization, and we are sure that it too has learned very important lessons from its continuing participation in the achievement, maintenance and development of peace in El Salvador. Our view of the United Nations has been enriched as we have shared with the world Organization the responsibility of carrying out the peace plan in El Salvador. Thus we understand more clearly that the United Nations is also evolving. Its original form was a product of the end of the Second World War; it must now open itself up to new realities. Organs, such as the Security Council, and even the Secretary-General now have roles and responsibilities which demand changes.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“That instrument is this Organization, and this special dimension of its work has expanded and been emphasized in recent years. El Salvador has the honour to have been one of the first countries to benefit from the new United Nations system of peace- keeping efforts. All the work of active mediation and then active monitoring - unprecedented in international law - which the United Nations has been putting into practice in El Salvador, is not some theoretical artifice, but an exercise derived from the necessities of a real situation. The dynamic of the Salvadorian process has shaped the role of the United Nations in our country.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“As the East-West conflict has disappeared, almost no one speaks about the North-South conflict or alternative alignments, but the serious problems of inequality, critical poverty and dependence have not been resolved. They are still with us. And they are a challenge for this new order which we are trying to create on a more rational and reasonable foundation. In this new scenario, the United Nations has a central role which was until recently unimaginable. The great dynamic of universal peace cannot be led by a single country, nor even by a privileged group of countries. The cooperation, understanding and support of all countries is needed, as is an instrument which will make peace processes viable and monitor and support them.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“With many certainties remaining, and in the healthy absence of the magical formulas that have so tormented the world during our century, we are perhaps on the way to understanding that the natural rhythm of change can also be summed in another classic phrase: "Without hurrying, but without pausing." With evolution as our guide once again, we have no reason to hurry. The rhythm of transformation occurs in a way that cannot be resisted. We see this in the changing international, political and economic relations of our time. An almost spontaneous restructuring has followed the removal of so many straitjackets. And this restructuring has brought to light what has always been most important: the real problems.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“And now we would like to emphasize that we are well aware that peace is a process. Being a process, it cannot be static, but must evolve. In this as well, El Salvador sets an example. Countries such as ours were for long caught up in the struggle between authoritarian stagnation and revolutionary radicalism. This is a pivotal moment in history, because it is giving us all a lesson in the pre-eminence of an ancient but under-valued concept: evolution. "Everything changes," said the pre-Socratic philosopher. But the natural rhythm of that change has always been a kind of historical riddle.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“But ideological, strategic and geopolitical bipolarity artificially created some conflicts and stifled others, also artificially. Reality is, of course, a better guide than all the fantasies of the ideologies. We in El Salvador do not speak of these matters with the tranquillity of analysts or the scientific patience of academicians. We speak of war because we have physically endured it. We speak of the worldwide ideological confrontation because, during what we now know was its last phase, El Salvador was one of its most intense battlegrounds. And we also speak of peace because we are building peace on the basis of an agreement of great institutional significance, conceived and structured to strengthen democracy in El Salvador and throughout Central America. We have already expressed what this peace means to us.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“El Salvador is a living example of how the transition from a world dominated by a confrontational bipolarity to one determined by the logic of specific situations is taking place. We do not doubt for one instant that the engine of the world process is changing: from abusive and heartless ideology to pragmatic and ordered rationality. There have always been many problems and conflicts in the world, but for a long time the international drama seemed to be an increasingly absorbing confrontation of ideologies. This distortion, aggravated by the real problems that existed, impeded their solution. It is true that since the cold war painful and cruel situations have erupted, such as the one now experienced in the former Yugoslavia.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Thirdly, we must recognize that the peace process in El Salvador was continually and effectively followed by the international community, represented by the Security Council and the Secretary-General of this great world Organization, by a group of countries that had close ties to the situation in El Salvador in a variety of ways, and by a widespread general interest in observing the ways and means used to resolve a conflict such as the one that afflicted El Salvador for such a long time. We have no doubt that without this international attention a solution to the problem in El Forty-eighth session - 27 September l993 3 Salvador would have been much more difficult and complicated.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Without a culture of peace, which will help to remove the ever-active remnants of the culture of violence, it will be impossible to establish the new world order demanded by our times, a new moral order between men and nations as the foundation for this new world order of competitive but respectful and harmonious coexistence, which we can glimpse as an achievable reality as we pass into the new millennium.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The exhaustion from the war and the impetus towards a process of democratization created the conditions for the emergence in El Salvador of a culture of tolerance, understanding and reconciliation - in a word, a culture of peace. This concept has not emerged in El Salvador alone; it is a growing concern throughout the world. With the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, we are striving to promote a culture of peace, for which we appeal for the firm support of the international community.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Given that it was a conflict with historical and social roots, its eruption was eminently political, linked to the inadequacy and dysfunctioning of the traditional Salvadorean political system and the political-ideological confrontation of the super- Powers. The solution had to be political, without winners or losers, and to aim at the creation of a new scenario involving a system of pluralistic participation. The peace agreement is a plan of commitments to expanding, developing and guaranteeing democracy in El Salvador. That was what we needed. That is why it was implemented in an irreversible manner, despite momentary problems that were merely mishaps along the way. Secondly, the conflict led to violent confrontation in the country.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Otherwise, we would be making just another effort - like so many in our past - that would not rise above superficial means or lay the true foundations of the country’s political, social and economic modernization. For us - and this is the aspect that has enabled our process to succeed - peace is synonymous with democracy. We in El Salvador have been delighted to learn that, from varying perspectives of ideological and political thought, our peace process is considered exemplary. In this forum of nations, we should like to point to some of the factors that, in our opinion, have allowed us to set that example. First of all, we believe that the solution achieved is strictly in keeping with the nature of the conflict.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“If we wish sincerely to interpret the history of our country, we must say that the peace process in El Salvador was a search along various avenues that had been present in the lives of the people of El Salvador ever since our nation was born. Our peace process is not a mere expression of the need to find a sensible and reasonable end to an unjust and painful war. In El Salvador, as in so many other countries with a historical development similar to ours, peace is the generic name for age-old needs and aspirations, such as those for democracy, democratic institutions, the rule of law, political freedoms and rights - in a word, the victory of civilization over barbarism. This helped us to understand, as our work for peace began, that it must be solid and enduring.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“A few months earlier, we had just taken the reins of government with a great purpose born in the deepest part of our conscience: to do all that was humanly possible to find a political solution to the Salvadorean conflict. That is how we expressed ourselves, with a solemn promise, to the Salvadorean people on the first day of our Government. We reaffirmed it before the United Nations in September of that crucial year of 1989, only a few weeks before the world witnessed the almost unbelievable dissolution of one of the greatest ideological- military Powers on Earth. This led to a new era - difficult, but also hopeful and promising, for all.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We once again express our support for and confidence in him in his difficult task of seeking international peace and security. For the fifth year in a row we have come to this highest international forum, from which it has been our privilege to give annual testimony to the progress of a process that, though it is unfolding in a small developing country, represents one of the most complex and exemplary dynamic forces for peace in modern history. In 1989, when we first came to speak to the world’s representatives from this rostrum, the case of El Salvador was just one more knot in the tangled web of problems left behind by the sadly notorious cold war as it began unexpectedly to wind down.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Your address demonstrated your sensitivity and wisdom, which, added to your political and diplomatic experience in multilateralism, will help us move forward to change as we endeavour to achieve the objectives of our Organization. We should also like to express our appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, the former Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, for the successful manner in which he guided the work of the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly and in particular for his efforts to bring about the restructuring and revitalization of the United Nations system. We also wish to join in the expressions of appreciation to the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his dedication and hard work in leading our Organization.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It is a great pleasure for us to salute your unanimous election, Sir, to preside over the General Assembly’s work at its forty-eighth session, especially since you are a worthy representative of a sister country of our region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Your opening address, in which you presented your vision of the world, was rich in ideas and insights into international reality. You urged that we commit ourselves to promoting the purposes and principles of the Charter in order to achieve a better world, and you encouraged us to reflect on our responsibilities as we strive to meet the global challenges facing our peoples.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We view the development of Central American and Salvadorian events with hope and realism. Our Government has declared the year 1990-1991 the Tear of Peace. Peace is on the move. We say this with firm conviction. In the last year we have worked tirelessly for peace. The Salvadorian people fervently prays and eagerly hopes that war will disappear from our land. From this rostrum, we wish to ask God to enlighten all of us so that we may soon find the only path that will lead us to the future national reconciliation.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“In our country, we are working pragmatically for the benefit of children and are firmly committed to bringing about a drastic reduction in the levels of malnutrition and disease and in the rate of school drop-outs during our remaining years in office. We are making a frontal assault on drug abuse and are determined to save the environment, for which we have designed, inter alia, a programme of national parks that will constitute inviolable reserves for the future. The United Nations has been playing and will continue to play a primary role in bringing peace to Central America. We reiterate in this Assembly the need for the United Nations Observer Group in Central America to remain active, now more than ever, in order to guarantee the security of the region and eventually help to give final form to the peace agreement in El Salvador.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“In another connection, this Assembly will also be remembered for the unprecedented Presidential Summit for Children and for the unanimous concern of Governments about the catastrophic dangers of environmental deterioration, the drug traffic and drug addiction. The subject of the protection and restoration of life is now very much in the forefront of mankind's consciousness, and that fact is reflected as one of the principal concerns of this body. We join in this great effort in behalf of life on our turbulent planet and we declare our endorsement now for any initiative agreed upon in this respect.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“This is a step that provides well-founded hope to trust that definitive stability is possible in the short-term in southern Africa in the light of the principles of equality and freedom, which are necessary for a lasting solution to national and international conflicts in today's world. We viewed with pleasure the current dialogue between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and we fervently hope that it will come to fruition for the benefit and prosperity of the noble Korean nation. None the less, we believe that there is no need to delay any further the acceptance of the Republic of Korea as a member of the United Nations, since it meets the prerequisites for membership and since, moreover, its participation would be of great value for attaining the purposes of the Charter.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“It will reach a culmination on 3 October, with the unification of Germany, which until only a few months ago seemed such a remote possibility. We welcome it and we congratulate its protagonists. This general situation of renewal and rapprochement in Europe on the threshold of 1992, when united Europe will give a new face to contemporary history, is another vivid lesson for the peoples. Two new Members have joined our Organisation - Liechtenstein and Namibia. Ha welcome both of them with deep satisfaction. In the special case of Namibia, we wish to emphasise the role played by the international community, particularly the United Nations, in the satisfactory and civilised culmination of the lengthy struggle of the noble Namibian people to achieve their independence.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“As to the agreement on human rights entered into by the Government and the FMMŁ in San José, for us its validity is immediate, and we are prepared to welcome international verification by the United Nations when the Organisation so agrees. Let us hop, that this will be as soon as possible. This session of the General Assembly will be remembered for very varied reasons. It is the first which has occurred since the dismantling of the cold war. However, it is taking place at a time when there are serious prospects for a regional conflict in the Middle East in which, at this very time, there is extreme tension between the forces of reason and right and those of outrageous arbitrary behaviour and barbarity. In Europe, an impressive phenomenon is occurring.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“That would be a temporary measure of effective good will, not intended to gain breathing space in the war, but rather to cement credibility and peace until the political agreements leading to a definitive cessation of armed confrontation can be arrived at. We are sure that a cease-fire decided on unilaterally by each one of the parties, which would enter into force at the same time, would speed up the negotiations because, in the phase that we are in now, violence merely impedes that process. Violence has many times been used as an alleged means of pressure to bring about a final solution, and all it has done is aggravate the war. Let us begin to use the resources of progressive peace-making, which are those which reality demands of us, and which the people, universally, in its suffering and stoicism yearns for.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“In accordance with the trend in today's world, and interpreting the mood of the international community, which has been set forth from this rostrum by the morally powerful voice of our sister Republic, Costa Rica, an example of democracy in the world, we are prepared to declare a unilateral cease-fire, to be put into effect as soon as the FMNL decides likewise - and this to make it possible for negotiations to move forward in an atmosphere marked by less tension and greater trust and, in particular, to provide real signals to the Salvadorian people that the political will of both parties is now firmly and permanently addressed to peace.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“The greatest responsibility we have is to lower the level of individual and collective passions and to make a supreme effort of tolerance. Political and moral reasons provide abundant support for this attitude.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Particularly, we address the FMNL and urge it to make a mutual exercise of flexibility and realistic understanding at the negotiating table. We have repeatedly said that the mere fact that we have proposed, from the first days of our tern in Government, a permanent dialogue to seek a lasting peace in our country already moves us away from the fruitless and sterile, quarrelsome notion of victors and vanquished. Rather, we believe that this war has left us all with great lessons which we should learn so that we can put into practice these lessons to secure the peace which we want and which the country needs. No one is trying to destroy anyone else, neither at the negotiating table, nor away from the negotiating table, nor after the negotiating table. Far from it.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Interpreting the mood of the people, from this rostrum, which is the highest rostrum of the nations, we would say to all the national forces, the Government of the Republic El Salvador is prepared to do its utmost, with flexibility and serenity as necessary, in order to continue to seek an exemplary peace such as the Salvadorian people deserves. In this respect, we have only two unswerving principles to uphold: the fundamental principles of representative democracy and respect for law. As regards respect for the law, we realise that it may change, of course, in accordance with the needs of the time, but change must be carried out on the rails established by the law itself. Political and social reason can motivate such change, but it can never be motivated by arbitrary wishes or the caprice of individuals or groups.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“In that simple, natural and democratic way, we exercise power. We also nurture power in that way, because it is not our power and not anyone else's. It is the power of the people. This may seem mere talk but, in fact, it really represents our maximum challenge and, eventually, it will be our greatest conquest: affirming civil authority, not as an arbitrary type of rule, but as the authority leading the destiny of a pluralistic society, which we already are and which we shall increasingly be, in a peaceful manner. There is no longer any reason for war to exist in El Salvador. We do not want war in El Salvador.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“The responsibility of Salvadorians for this decisive phase of our history is so great that we do not believe in the simplicity of superficial solutions. All our programmes and goals look forward towards the immediate future and the more remote future. It would be suicidal to cling to vices, shortcomings and arbitrary behaviour or archaic privileges. Life is evolving, and minds must evolve also so that actions will respond to deeds and not to ideological mirages of any sort. We want to live in peace. We are working to ensure that a firm and lasting peace will take root, in which there will be no type of oppression, no type of impunity and no type of exclusive fanaticism. Democracy is our ideal, and we dedicate our full energy every day to strengthening it. Democracy is built each day more with simple facts than with spectacular posturing.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“As regards the domestic conflict which is afflicting us, and which we feel now is completely out of date and totally unwarranted, our position is quite clear. We want a comprehensive solution to this conflict. We hope that the FMHŁ, having become a totally political force, will participate with all the guarantees which all political parties have in the democratic life of the country, and we trust that the solution to be found to the conflict will serve, as Mr. Perez de Cuellar rightly observes in his annual report to the Organisation, to lead "to a positive transformation of Salvadorian society". (A,45,1. p„ ft) We look towards the past only to learn positive lessons from it, not to try to reproduce it in any way, shape or form.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Our country as we have undertaken to do and as indeed is our obligation, by virtue of our voluntary acceptance of the jurisdiction of the Court, will comply with the Court's ruling on this frontier dispute. Moreover El Salvador is fully confident that the Secretary-General of the United Nations through the Security Council, and at the request of the Presidents of Central America, particularly the President of El Salvador will continue to pursue his active mediation to resolve by political negotiations, the internal conflict still affecting our people. Ha uphold international law absolutely and unequivocally. Our confidence in international machinery to foster the peaceful settlement of all kinds of conflicts is total.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“In democracy only the moderate prosper and the best proof of moderation is strict compliance with the laws. That is why our struggle is one on behalf of rationality and understanding and the peaceful coexistence of brothers - because we have already seen for ourselves the madness of war and we do not want even the slightest root of that fratricidal madness to remain in our soil. Our Government is a full-fledged member of the civilised community of nations and in this respect we assume the international responsibilities incumbent upon us. El Salvador is at this time making legitimate use of this status by having recourse to the International Court of Justice together with our sister Republic of Honduras in order to seek a settlement to a century-old frontier dispute which we hope will be terminated once and for all in mid-19Sl.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“National salvation, which is the ultimate goal of my Government involves the purification of practically all our institutions and of course the armed forces are no exception. In all honesty we can say that the civilian branch of authority is becoming stronger and stronger in our country and that, within the present process of institutional modernisation, each sector is taking its place within the orderly framework of a functional democracy. Those who want to see El Salvador as it was in 1979 want to live in the past because they are either biased or blind. The decade of the 1960s has taught us in El Salvador more than we could have learnt in all the previous decades since independence. In the first place it has taught us the irreplaceable value of democracy, which is the best school of moderation.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“We believe primarily in the creative productive spirit of the human being and his inherent freedom, and that is why we have designed and put into effect a pattern of measures which, while gradually improving the economy, will make possible the realistic and accelerated reconstruction of the country. This obviously has a high political cost, but we are prepared to confront that, because we are guided by the interests of our nation. We also know that this way of thinking and this type of economic action now prevail in the world and this encourages us to move ahead without vacillation although we are prepared to make corrections and changes as necessary when the objective reality of our country so requires. We are aware that in El Salvador a radical change is taking place, the outcome of the most profound crisis in our history.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Our view of peace in El Salvador comprises three fundamental elements: the strengthening of unrestricted political pluralism, in the terms guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic; the consolidation of democratic institutions, with the unequivocal pre-eminence of the civilian branch of authority, deriving from the will of the people; and sustained and balanced economic and social development which will make it possible for El Salvador to build a model of prosperity in which everyone will have an opportunity for advancement. We are opposed to the paternalism which causes peoples to become stultified and the populism which impoverishes them by deceiving them, and also to simplistic economic formulas which fail to take into account the human dimension of development.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“The other guarantee is international verification, for the effectiveness of which we are prepared to give our full support and the assurances required, now and in, be future. The verification model we have supported and agreed upon in order to end this conflict once and for all is unprecedented, and this in itself is a way of demonstrating to the world our determination to achieve harmony and our absolute sincerity with regard to the free and peaceful future of the country.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“As a consequence of that the Security Council has authorised the Secretariat to establish in El Salvador an office to do the preparatory work dealing with the verification of the agreements in all spheres that the process will produce. I wish to emphasise that our Government places the highest possible value on the verification to be carried out by the United Nations in every aspect of the agreements resulting from the peace process. We are firmly committed to ensuring that this verification will be timely, broad and sufficient, without short-cuts or ambiguities. The first guarantee for peace in El Salvador is, of course, the determination of the people to achieve peace, as indicated by the serious and constant functioning of the peace machinery, both at the negotiating table and away from that table.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“We have come here not to complain about what has happened in the past but rather to explain the positive things that are going on. At the beginning of this year we came to the United Nations to request its assistance in restoring the negotiating process. This came about in April, under the auspices of the Secretary-General, Mr. Peres de Cuellar, who has at all times been eager to bring all his wisdom and energy to bear in the service of the cause of peace in El Salvador. Through his worthy representative, Mr. De Soto, we have succeeded in re-establishing the negotiating process, and this is now moving forward at such a pace that concrete results are already being achieved. Last July a substantive agreement was signed between the Government and the FMLN on the crucial aspect of respect for and guaranteeing of human rights in the country.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Peace has to be gradually forged in the political understanding of the various forces involved. Xs part of that national understanding, the negotiations between the Government of the Republic and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Force (FMLH) are a crucial factor, and they must be promoted and conducted in a reasonable manner so that they may yield permanent results for the benefit of all our people. Throughout the year that has elapsed since I had the honour of speaking from this rostrum, we have made constant efforts on behalf of political negotiations with a view to ending the conflict. I do not wish to dwell on the regrettable fact that the FMLN broke off negotiations in November last year and launched a very violent offensive which struck unjustly at the civilian population, already severely battered by war.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“My Government, with its firm commitment to endorsing the consensus agreements resulting from the elections, expresses before this universal forum its determination to ensure that the international monitoring of the forthcoming elections will begin functioning immediately with sufficient scope and freedom to leave no doubt in anyone's mind of our will to achieve democracy. In the light of the foregoing, we invite the Organization and its Member States to give us their full co-operation and to set in motion immediately, in a consistent and effective manner, the machinery for international monitoring of the forthcoming electoral process. In our country clean and honest elections are an important part of the democratization that has been under way since 1982. Peace in Б1 Salvador is not going to come out of the barrel of a gun.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)